Thiolated DAB Dendrimer-Gold Nanoparticles Self-Assembled Monolayer as Covalent Support for Direct Electrochemistry of HRP and Sensing Applications

Abstract

A thiolated DAB dendrimer has been employed to bond gold nanoparticles of several sizes in order to obtain an electrocatalytic framework for the covalent immobilization and direct electrochemistry of horseradish peroxidase (HRP). This biosensor must represent the basis for developing a lot of oxidase-peroxidase bienzymatic biosensors and heavy metals biosensors based on the HRP inhibition. The kinetic study of the modified electrodes showed that the 5 nm and 16 nm gold nanoparticles are the most efficient to contact with the HRP active centre and the optimized biosensor allow to measure hydrogen peroxide at -0.3 V applied potential in linear ranges of 1-5000 and 1-140 or 140-5000 respectively with high sensitivities of 418.6 and 266.3 u A mM-1 cm-2 respectively too with low detection limits of 5 and 9 nM and fast response. The obtained apparent Michaelis-Menten constants, were 0.16 and 0.84 mM respectively. Both are significantly lower than the intrinsic K´M revealing the very high enzymatic efficiency of the developed devices.